Learning something new: Brains over brawn. (Neyasha)

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei sat in a large room with his usual bag of tennis balls. The whole bag had been upset all over the floor, and the fuzzy yellow spheres were all over the place.

Wei lifted a ball using the Force, and let it orbit him a little bit. It was always good to warm up before teaching a lesson. Then Wei picked up a second one and sent it in the opposite direction of the first.

He let them each make 3 laps, then he set them down. Next, Wei reached out to all of the tennis balls and started to arrange them in neat little rows around him until they made a square formation with him in the center. It took a little bit, but Wei did it.

"Zeke wouldn't have any trouble with this at all..." Wei muttered. He'd go find Zeke at a later date. But for now, training was in order.

[Valora Ashen]

Valora comes running into the room. She sees Wei and charges at him, hugging his legs when she reaches him.

"HI!"

[Neyasha]

Neyasha walks in seconds after Valora enters the room. She walks over to Wei and give him a respectful bow.

"Greetings Master. I am reporting in as requested. May I ask why you have called me here?"

Neyasha already knew that she was here for training, but it just felt natural for her to ask, due to her programing.

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei chuckled at the sound of little feet, and bent his knee slightly to absorb the small impact on his leg. "Hi, Valora."

He laughed a little louder this time, and pried the girl off his leg, picking her up and giving her a hug. "I've called you here to teach you Telekinesis, Padawan."

Wei set Valora on the ground again. "It's not hard once you get the idea. We start by getting in synch with the Force and then imagining the object we are wanting to lift being lifted into the air. Or slid along the ground. Or whatever you want it to do."

Wei started with a few of the tennis balls. "It helps sometimes to imagine yourself picking up the ball. But you don't really touch it."

Wei had his hands outstretched, palms facing the tennis balls and gently lifted, raising the fuzzy spheres off the ground. "See there? But I want you to lift only one. Pick any one you want."

[Neyasha]

Neyasha nods, pushes the button on her bracelet, and calls the force to her. She streaches out her hand, and focuses on a ball. that ball wiggles a little bit over a half hour time frame, then she waves her hand dismissingly as she gives up. As she does this the ball quickly lifts off the floor and bounces off Wei's knee and eventualy rolls off to the wall.

Neyasha is suprised enough that she doesn't even bother hiding the fact she is suprised...

"How did that happen?! It wouldn't move while I was trying to command it to! Why would it now!?"

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei chuckled. "Because you were trying too hard. You can't make the ball levitate. But you can allow it to levitate. Attune yourself to the Force and allow the ball to float."

[Neyasha]

Neyasha calls the force to her again, and streaches out her hand again, and focuses on a ball again. This time the ball comes flying from the wall at high speeds and slams Nayasha in the forhead. Neyasha is again suprised, and the ball catches her off gaurd and she falls on her bum because of it.

[Valora Ashen]

Valora laughs as her mother is smucked by the ball.

"That look funny! Do again! Pwease!"

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei took a seat on the floor and smiled. "Gentle Padawan. There are no hurries here. Take your time, and the ball will take its time."

[Neyasha]

Neyasha stands up again...

"I'm not even sure what I'm doing to the ball.... Logic would dictate that the actions of the ball are close to imposible."

[Wei Wu Wei]

"Close. But not quite impossible. You can't control the Force. We've said that already. We can only attune ourselves to it. That, we have also already covered. The Force is in everything. So when we attune ourselves to the Force, which is in everything, we become attuned to those things. It's like we become a part of the ball."

Wei chuckled. "You don't think out loud to your body for it to breathe. It takes no concsious effort to breathe."

[Neyasha]

"But this force seems more like muscles, since it can be used to move objects and do work. Mucsles are commanded otherwise they do not work."

Neyasha pushes the button on her bracelet again. She doesn't know how long it will take to ware off, but she does not wish to end up in the med bay again.

[Wei Wu Wei]

"Yes. Something must move your muscles. But you don't say to your right arm 'Bend at the elbow' and then it bends at the elbow. You want your elbow to bend, and it bends. There's no real conscious effort involved. Imagine if we had to debate with our own bodies about things like walking, or using the bathroom. We'd be exhausted after taking just a few short steps."

Wei pushed up his glasses. "Ok, let's do it this way. Maybe an example would help. Valora, I need you to stand here next to me."

[Valora Ashen]

Valora walks over to Wei and stands where he wants her.

"Okay! Dis good nuff?"

[Neyasha]

Neyasha sits on the floor and faces Wei, ready to watch his example.

[Wei Wu Wei]

"That's perfect."

Wei patted Valora on the head, then spoke to Neyasha. "I wanted Valora to come stand next to me, and I allowed her to do so. However, suppose I made her stand next to you."

Wei suddenly snatched up Valora and planted her down next to her mother. "How did that work out?"

[Valora Ashen]

When Wei picks her up she reacts under reflex, and starts kicking, screaming, biteing untill she is put on the floor. She then cowers away from Wei behind her mother. Valora starts to cry out of fear and pain from the sudden presure that Wei placed on her sides.

"He hurt me..." Valora wimpers...

[Neyasha]

Neyasha is on her feet in seconds, with a hand at Wei's neck, and a looks of a cold hard killer in her eyes.

"Never Hurt My Daughter! If you were not a friend you would not be getting this warning! And trust me, you will not get a second warning!"

Neyasha lets go of Wei and picks up Valora, and start to walk towards the door.

[Wei Wu Wei]

In a second Wei was in front of Neyasha again. "And here we have just completed my example. I forced Valora to move to where you were. And it was hard. And painful. Just like when you moved that tennis ball."

Wei's eyes were also serious, but they were not incredibly hard or fierce. Then his expression softened even more. "I am sorry I hurt you, Valora. Come here and we'll make it better." Wei held out his hands and lightly touched the child's sides, easing the pain until it disappeared.

"Much better. Now, this time you are going to treat the tennis ball like you would your daughter. You know the kind of deftness and gentleness with which you handle her; use that deftness and gentleness when moving the tennis balls."

[Neyasha]

Neyasha Stops and looks at Wei as he heals her daughter.

"I will stay and try this task, only if you promise to not use Valora in examples that may hurt her again."

[Valora Ashen]

Valora calms down as Wei heals her, though she still is warry of him, holding her mother closely.

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei nodded. "I promise. Now, back to what we were doing."

Wei returned to the center of the room, surrounded once again by all the tennis balls. "Move one."

[Neyasha]

Neyasha puts Valora on the floor, and walks back to the tennis balls. She focuses on the balls and on twitches slightly then lifts off the floor by about one foot then falls to the floor again.

[Valora Ashen]

Valora had been watching and listening to her mother's lesson and desides to try what her mom is trying. Valora focuses on one of the ball, and follows Wei's instructions that he gave her mother, and after a few moments, the ball next to the on her mother just droped, lifts off the floor slowly and hovers at the hight of Wei's waist for 2 seconds and then goes back to the floor gently.

Valora seems to be having an easer time with this since she is still a child, and has not been told what can and can not happen, resulting in her beleaving that anything can happen, and making it so that doubt does not get in the way of her using her powers.

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei smiled. "Very good. Both of you have done very well."

Wei lifted a tennis ball with the Force. "Neyasha, stop this ball without using your hands."

Wei let the ball float for a moment more, giving his Padawan time to prepare herself. "Ready? Go!" The ball suddenly lept at Neyasha.

[Neyasha]

Neyasha dodges out of the path of the ball, out of pure reflex. the ball flys past her waist and flys towards Valora who is standing behind her. As she sees the ball flying at Valora head as speeds that even she couldn't intercept she just casts out a hand, not even thinking about what she is doing and stops the ball one foot infront of Valora's face. She then clues into what she just did as she sees the ball hovering infront of her daughters face. At this point she losses her grip on the ball and it falls harmlessly to the floor.

[Valora Ashen]

Valora was standing behind her mother, when she dives out of the was of something. She then sees the ball flying at her face and her legs freeze. She covers her face with her arms and starts screeming as she braces for impact.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!"

She continues screeming untill she realises that the ball was supose to have hit her by now. That when she pulls her arms off her face and see the hovering ball drop to the floor. at this point she stops screeming..

"Umm...Tank you."

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei smiled, and clapped his hands lightly. "Good job, my Padawan. Very well done indeed. At last you are understanding what I mean by allowing things to happen. I bet you didn't even think about what you were doing, did you?"

Wei laughed and clapped his hands harder before giving Neyasha a well deserved hug. "I'm very proud of you."

The Jedi Knight ruffled Valora's hair. "I'm proud of you too."

[Neyasha]

Neyasha is suprised at what she did and doesn't really understand what happend untill Wei is hugging her. She hugs him back...

"I didn't try to do anything. My sences detected danger, and my reflexes took over. After I moved I noticed that I put my daughter in danger, and that the danger must be adverted at all costs. I don't even know how I did that ."

[Valora Ashen]

Valora smiles up at Wei as she gets her hair ruffled.

"Dat okay! but, why you poud wit me?"

[Wei Wu Wei]

"Exactly. You didn't think about it. You just did it. Just as natural as doing anything else. And you, Valora are also doing a very good job of using the Force."

Wei paused and looked around. "Ok, you two. We got to do one more thing before we go. We need to clean up." Wei directed the next part especially at Valora. "We always must clean up after ourselves when we make a mess."

Wei walked over to the bag he kept his tennis balls in. "So, you two are going to use the Force to put the balls in the bag. There's quite a few, but it won't take long."

[Neyasha]

"Very well Master. We will cleen up."

Neyasha starts to use the force to pick up the balls, thought at first it is slow since she it still trying to command the force to do the work, but slowly she relaxes her attention and then the force starts to respond better, allowing her to work easer and faster.

[Valora Ashen]

Valora nods, and starts to easly pick up pick up the balls with the force and put them in the bag. and even after Neyasha starts to get the hang of it, Valora is still getting 3 balls into the bag for every 2 Neyasha gets in.

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei held the bag open, feeling its weight increase as its contents do. At last, every ball is put away, and Wei pulls the drawstring on the bag and fastens it closed.

"Good job. Now, are there any questions about how to move things with the Force?"

[Valora Ashen]

Valora nods and waves her hand. When Wei lets her ask her question she says...

"Why I better at moving balls than mommy?"

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei chuckled. "Well, let's think about that for a moment. In order to be very good at moving balls around, we must be attuned to the Force. Being attuned to something means that we must be very much able to feel it, and know that it is there."

Wei paused, looking for an example. "Like your feelings. Valora, how do you feel?"

[Valora Ashen]

Valora thinks for a moment....

"I happy! I happy I do good with class!"

[Neyasha]

Neyasha just sits back and listens to her daughter and Wei talk keeping herself quiet for now.

[Wei Wu Wei]

"Yes. Neyasha, how do you feel?"

Wei was curious to see what Neyasha would say, considering her previous surgeries, and Wei's efforts at her recovery from those surgeries.

[Neyasha]

Neyasha give Wei a Blank look, wondering where this question is going.

"That be the same as every other human. As changes in presure, and tempetutre are detected by my skin, the nerve cells cend electrical pulses through the nerves in my body to my spinal cord. After the pulse reaches my spine it travles up my spine to my brain, and from there the brain stem sends a responce back to the portion of the body that sent the impuls in the first place, causing a reflex action to deal with the stimilus, at the brain computes what has occured."

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei chuckled and shook his head. "I meant your emotions, Padawan. Are you happy, sad, frustrated, calm?"

Wei stood up. "How you are feeling is very important when using the Force. You will be asked that question sooner or later in your Jedi career. Emotions play a large role. Dark Jedi and Sith are full of anger, pain, and frustration. Jedi are more calm, and light-hearted."

Wei paused and took a deep breath. "I hate to say it, but until you can learn to acknowledge and be honest about your emotions, you will always have a hard time with the Force."

[Neyasha]

"I'm curently not regestering any emotional flucuations, in my body at this current point in time. All system are opperating under optimum conditions. If there were any emotional changes I would acknowledge it existance and would be honest about it. Then I would deal with it accordingly."

[Valora Ashen]

Valora giggles...

"Mommy talk funny! she use big words!"

[Wei Wu Wei]

"That she does."

Wei paused for a moment before asking another question. "When I violently picked up Valora, how did you feel?"

[Neyasha]

"I felt betrayed, since I know that you know that I would do anything to keep Valora from harm."

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei smiled. "Aha! There was an emotion. The Force works by being attuned to your emotions. You acknowledge them, and let them pass. Adults have a tendency to repress their emotions, or sometimes to dwell on what caused them. Children, however don't."

"You ever see a little boy playing? He falls and hurts his knee. He gets up, cries for a few moments, and when his mother has given him a hug and a kiss, and dusted the child off, he is back on the playground playin and laughing as though nothing had ever happened. He did not repress the pain nor did he dwell on it."

[Neyasha]

"If you are trying to say that I repress or dwell on pain, that would be an incorrect statment. I note that it is there, then dismiss it. Pain is to be imbraced, since it is life's teacher. It lets us know when we have done something wrong."

[Wei Wu Wei]

"I didn't say you did. Pain is to be dealt with. But you need not focus on the negative. Pain lets us know when we have done something wrong. But here's another way of viewing pain. It also lets us know when we've done something right."

[Neyasha]

Neyasha gets a puzzled look on her face...

"How do you justify say that is lets us know if we have done something right? Pain is life way of disiplin, and is provided when we step out of our physical bounds."

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei chuckled. "It is. It is. But you're talking about a physical hurt. I'm talking about an emotional hurt. Doing the right thing can hurt a lot of times. Such as taking care of a person who does not appreciate you. It is a painful thing not to be appreciated. But should that prevent you from doing your duty as a Jedi?"

[Neyasha]

"Wether or not a person appreciate's you is irevlent. As long as all parameters of the assginment are complete with in a degree of acceptability, other people's chemical distrbances that cause emotion should not be a factor in completeing the mission."

[Wei Wu Wei]

It was a very scientific and elaborate answer. Wei took it to mean "No."

"Well, all right then. If you have no other questions, you two can go."

[Valora Ashen]

Valora puts up her hand again waving it around...

"Me!Me!Me!Me!Me!Me!Me!"

When wei motions for her to ask her question Valora Asks..

"What mommy just say? She use many big words."

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei thought about it a moment before finally deciding how to best explain it to the child. "She said that doing the right thing is more important than what other people think about you. That you should do the right thing, even if it means other people might not like you for it."

Of course, Wei's answer accounted for emotions and social consequences, wheras Neyasha's answer did not. But being a girl that would feel emotions and be concerned with what other people thought of her, he felt it was best he explained it to her in those terms.

[Valora Ashen]

Valora nods...

"Oh.. OKAY! Why She not just say dat!" She says as she roles her eyes.

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei smiled and shrugged. "Because that's how your mother is. Now, if that's all there is to it, you and your mother may go do something else until the next lesson."

[Neyasha]

Neyasha takes Valora by the hand and after giving Wei a bow in respect.

"We shall see you at our next class."

Neyasha then goes to take Valora and herself back to her room.

[Valora Ashen]

Valora lets herself be guided off out of the room but as she is leaving she look back at Wei waving...

"Bu Bye! See you Later Mr. Nice Man!"

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei chuckled. "See you later, Valora."

Wei drew the string on the bag of tennis balls. "So, we've covered Boosting and Telekinetics. That would leave sensing and lightsaber training left. Hmm..."

Wei left the empty room and turned the light off as he went. It had been a good day at practice. A very good day indeed.